Action for Community Training Services (ACTS Fund), a local Nongovernmental Organization (NGO) headed by Diana Nakibuuka, a Ugandan nurse based in the USA, on Friday officially launched the Health & Psychosocial Training Manual for Teachers and Other Stakeholders.
Health & Psychosocial Training Manual For Teachers
The Manual was launched during a function that was held at ……..…… Hotel, in Kampala, attended by officials from the Ministry of Health and District Health Officers (DHOs) from six districts around the country.
Mental health experts from ACTS Fund took the officials through the key objectives of the Manual, emphasizing the need for a mentally healthy population if the country is to achieve economic development and transformation, especially during the post-COVID-19 era.
Compiled and developed by a team of mental health experts from ACTS Fund, the purpose of the training manual is to provide effective guidance in delivering necessary mental health and psychosocial support responses in emergency cases, schools, and communities.
The Manual equips teachers and other stakeholders with basic and professional skills on how to handle mental health situations in schools and communities, plus the modalities of offering psychosocial support to mental health victims.
According to Nakibuuka, the main objective of launching this Training Manual, which will be disseminated across the country, is ensuring that teachers, community workers, and health officers are enabled with the capacity to handle mental health situations in the various areas where they live.
Through this, Nakibuuka said; “ACTS Fund aims at integrating mental health and psychosocial support within the Teachers’ fraternity, so as to combat the looming mental health crisis in Uganda.”
ACTS Fund Launches Health & Psychosocial Training Manual For Teachers
Established in 2014, Acts Fund is dedicated to innovations in mental health and psychosocial support services through scaling up solutions to improve access to mental health care.
The Organisation mainly focuses on Educational Support, Rehabilitation, Advocacy And Empowerment Of Vulnerable Communities With a Special Interest In Children, Adolescents, and Women.
Since its inception in 2014, the Organisation has enrolled 435 teenage mothers to the Bright Star Girls Alliance Project, through which they rehabilitate and provide educational support to girls who were impregnated during the COVID-19 lockdown in Uganda.
The NGO has also provided 3,200 teachers with Mental Health and Psychosocial Support Services Skills, which they are now implementing in their schools across the country.
As a result of their continued efforts at uplifting the lives of Ugandans and transforming communities, ACTS Fund this year entered into a partnership with the Ministry of Education and Sports, to offer mental health and psychosocial support to learners across the country starting with the districts of Kampala, Kalangala, Wakiso, Mpigi, Gomba, and Mukono.
Nakibuuka notes that ACTS Fund is equipped with a team of trained counselors who connect with 218,000 domestic violence victims across 136 districts 24/7, 365 days a year, through their toll-free numbers (267) 777-0457 and +256 393249208.